What to Do When a Spouse Dies: Probate, Benefits, and Taxes

What to do when a spouse dies breaks down into a sequence of tasks with hard deadlines: order certified death certificates, locate the will, notify Social Security, secure health coverage within 60 days, file life insurance and survivor benefit claims, sort out which assets pass automatically and which go through probate, handle debts and taxes, and update your own estate plan. Some of these steps cost real money if missed. The order below reflects which deadlines come first and which decisions unlock the others.

Start With Death Certificates and the Will

Order certified death certificates before you do anything else. Nearly every agency, insurer, and financial institution you contact will require one. Most families need at least ten copies. Costs run roughly $10 to $25 per certified copy depending on jurisdiction. Order more than you think you need, because requesting extras later takes weeks.

Then locate the original will. Check a home safe, a bank safe deposit box, or the office of the attorney who drafted it. Courts cannot help you search, so if you cannot find it, contact your spouse’s attorney directly. Once located, the executor named in the will files it with the local probate court along with a certified death certificate to begin estate administration.

While you are gathering paperwork, pull together financial account numbers, property records, insurance policies, Social Security numbers, the previous three years of tax returns, and DD-214 discharge papers if your spouse was a veteran. Veterans’ discharge papers are required to claim VA burial allowances and related benefits.¹ Having everything in one place prevents the cycle of calling an institution, being told you need a document, hanging up to find it, and calling back.

Social Security: Return Payments and Claim Survivor Benefits

Contact the Social Security Administration as soon as possible. If your spouse was receiving benefits, you must return any payment issued for the month of death or later. For direct deposit, call the bank and ask them to return the funds. For paper checks, do not cash them; send them back to SSA.² Keeping an overpayment creates a debt to the federal government that SSA will eventually collect, sometimes by offsetting your own future benefits.

You may be eligible for a one-time lump-sum death payment of $255.³ There is a two-year deadline to apply, and missing it means forfeiting the payment entirely.⁴

More significantly, surviving spouses can collect monthly survivor benefits. Payments start at 71.5% of your deceased spouse’s benefit amount if you claim at age 60 and increase the longer you wait, reaching 100% at your full retirement age (between 66 and 67 depending on your birth year).⁵ Apply promptly. For some claims, SSA pays benefits only from the date you apply, not retroactively to the date of death.⁴ If you are also entitled to benefits on your own work record, an SSA representative can help you decide whether to claim survivor benefits now and switch to your own later, or the reverse. The difference over a lifetime can be tens of thousands of dollars.

Keep Your Health Insurance

If you were covered under your spouse’s employer health plan, losing that coverage is one of the most financially dangerous consequences of a spouse’s death. You have two main options, both with tight enrollment windows.

Under federal COBRA rules, the death of a covered employee is a qualifying event that entitles a surviving spouse to continue the same group health coverage for up to 36 months.⁶ You must elect COBRA within 60 days of receiving the election notice.⁷ The catch is cost: you pay the full premium (both the employee and employer share) plus a 2% administrative fee. For many families, COBRA premiums exceed $1,500 per month. The coverage is identical to what you had, with no medical underwriting.

Alternatively, losing coverage through a spouse’s death qualifies you for a Special Enrollment Period on the Health Insurance Marketplace. You have 60 days from the loss of coverage to enroll, and depending on your income, you may qualify for premium subsidies that make marketplace coverage far cheaper than COBRA.⁸ Compare both before committing. COBRA buys time with familiar coverage while you evaluate marketplace plans, but the marketplace often costs less if subsidies apply.

File Life Insurance Claims

Contact each life insurance company with the policy number and a certified death certificate. Most insurers provide online claims portals, though some require mailed documents for larger policies. Many states require insurers to process straightforward claims within 30 to 60 days of receiving complete documentation. If you cannot locate a policy but believe one exists, check your spouse’s bank statements for premium payments, look through old tax returns, or search your state’s unclaimed property database.

Life insurance proceeds paid to a named beneficiary are generally not subject to federal income tax. If the benefit is paid to the estate rather than a named beneficiary, it becomes part of the estate and may be subject to estate taxes and creditor claims.

How Your Spouse’s Property Transfers

Not all of your spouse’s property goes through probate. How each asset transfers depends on how it was titled.

Assets That Transfer Automatically

Property held as joint tenants with right of survivorship passes directly to you, with no court involvement. You present a death certificate and complete whatever retitling paperwork the institution requires: a new deed for real estate, a transfer form for a brokerage account, or a title application for a vehicle.⁹ The same applies to bank and investment accounts with Payable on Death or Transfer on Death designations. Those designations function as a direct contract with the institution and override whatever the will says.

Community Property States

Nine states follow community property rules: Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin. Assets acquired during the marriage are generally considered equally owned by both spouses, and your spouse’s half transfers to you in a relatively straightforward process. In the remaining common law states, property belongs to whoever holds the title, which can require more formal legal proceedings to transfer assets that were in your spouse’s name alone.

Assets That Must Go Through Probate

Any asset titled solely in your deceased spouse’s name without a beneficiary designation, joint ownership, or trust must pass through probate, a court-supervised process that validates the will and oversees distribution. If there is no will, state intestacy laws determine who inherits what. The process typically takes several months to over a year.

Many states offer simplified small estate procedures, sometimes called a small estate affidavit, for estates below a certain dollar threshold. Thresholds vary widely, from around $50,000 to over $150,000, and the process is dramatically faster and cheaper than formal probate. If your spouse’s probate-eligible assets fall below your state’s threshold, ask the probate court clerk whether you qualify.

Debts You Owe and Debts You Don’t

The most common fear surviving spouses have is inheriting their partner’s debts. In most cases, you do not. A deceased person’s debts are the responsibility of their estate, meaning they are paid from estate assets before any inheritance is distributed. If the estate does not have enough assets to cover all debts, creditors generally absorb the loss.¹⁰

Important exceptions apply. You are personally liable for any debt where you were a co-signer or joint account holder. In community property states, you may also be liable for debts your spouse incurred during the marriage. Some states apply a doctrine that holds one spouse responsible for the other’s medical expenses and other basic necessities; the rules vary significantly from state to state.¹⁰

During probate, the executor publishes a notice to creditors, typically in a local newspaper, which starts a statutory window (often four to six months) during which creditors must file formal claims against the estate. Any creditor who misses this deadline generally loses the right to collect. Do not pay any debt collector who contacts you directly until you have confirmed that the debt is legally yours and not just the estate’s obligation.

Mortgage Protection

If you inherit a home with a mortgage, federal law prevents the lender from calling the loan due simply because your spouse died. The Garn-St. Germain Act prohibits lenders from enforcing due-on-sale clauses when property transfers to a relative because of a borrower’s death or when a spouse becomes an owner.¹¹ You can keep the existing mortgage with its current interest rate and terms. Contact the loan servicer to update their records and arrange for payments to come from your accounts.

Taxes in the Year of Death and After

For the tax year your spouse dies, you can still file a joint federal return. This gives you the higher standard deduction and wider tax brackets that apply to married couples filing jointly. For the following two years, if you have a dependent child living with you and have not remarried, you may file as a qualifying surviving spouse, which uses the same favorable tax rates as married filing jointly.¹² After those two years, you drop to single or head of household status, which can mean a noticeably higher tax bill on the same income.

Step-Up in Basis

When you inherit property from your spouse, the tax cost basis of that property resets to its fair market value at the date of death. This can save a significant amount in capital gains taxes if you later sell appreciated assets like a home or investments.¹³

In common law states, only your deceased spouse’s share of jointly owned property gets the step-up. If you and your spouse bought a home for $300,000 and it is worth $500,000 at death, your new basis would be $400,000: your original half ($150,000) plus the stepped-up half ($250,000). In community property states, the entire property receives a step-up to fair market value, giving you a full $500,000 basis in that same scenario.¹³ Get an appraisal of major assets as close to the date of death as possible, and keep records of the original purchase price and any capital improvements.

Estate Tax Portability Election

For 2026, the federal estate tax exemption is $15,000,000 per individual, following the permanent increase enacted by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.¹⁴ Most families will never owe federal estate tax. The portability election is still worth understanding: if your deceased spouse did not use their full exemption, you can claim the unused portion and add it to your own, effectively doubling your shield to $30,000,000.

To elect portability, the executor must file IRS Form 706 within nine months of death, with a possible six-month extension. Even if the estate owes no tax, filing Form 706 is the only way to preserve the unused exemption. If the deadline is missed, there is a late-filing procedure available up to five years after death for estates that had no filing obligation.¹⁵ For high-net-worth families, failing to make this election is one of the most expensive mistakes in estate planning.

Inherited Retirement Accounts

As the surviving spouse, you have more flexibility with inherited retirement accounts than any other type of beneficiary. For an IRA or 401(k) where you are the sole beneficiary, your main options include:¹⁶

Roll it into your own IRA. The account becomes yours, subject to your own required minimum distribution schedule based on your age. This is usually the best option if you do not need the money immediately.
Keep it as an inherited account. You take distributions based on your own life expectancy. This can make sense if you are under 59½ and need access to the funds without paying the 10% early withdrawal penalty.
Delay distributions. If your spouse died before their required beginning date, you can wait to start taking money out until the year your spouse would have turned 72.

For 401(k) accounts, the plan document controls what options are available, so contact the plan administrator directly. If your spouse passed away during the year and had not yet taken that year’s required distribution, you must take it for them by year-end to avoid penalties.¹⁶

Guard Against Identity Theft

Deceased individuals are frequent targets for identity theft because their credit files remain active until someone reports the death. Notify the credit bureaus as soon as you can. You only need to contact one of the three major agencies, TransUnion, Equifax, or Experian, and that agency will notify the other two.¹⁷

Send a letter that includes a copy of the death certificate along with your spouse’s full legal name, Social Security number, date of birth, and date of death. Once processed, the credit report is flagged as deceased within about five business days, which blocks most fraudulent applications.¹⁷ Also notify any financial institution where your spouse held accounts, and monitor your own credit report for unusual joint-account activity in the months that follow.

Update Your Own Estate Plan

Your existing estate plan almost certainly names your spouse in multiple roles: executor, beneficiary, power of attorney agent, healthcare proxy, and possibly guardian for minor children. Every one of those designations is now void and needs to be replaced.

Review and update:

Your will. Name a new executor and update any bequests or guardianship provisions.
Beneficiary designations on every retirement account, life insurance policy, and bank account that listed your spouse. These override your will, so an outdated designation can send assets to unintended recipients.
Power of attorney. Appoint a new agent for both financial and healthcare decisions.
Advance directives. Designate a new healthcare proxy.
Trust documents. If your spouse was a co-trustee or named successor trustee, update accordingly.

Do not rush these changes while grieving, but do not leave them indefinitely either. Most estate attorneys can handle the updates in a single appointment.

1
Veterans Affairs. Veterans Burial Allowance and Transportation Benefits
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Social Security Administration. How Social Security Can Help You When a Family Member Dies
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Social Security Administration. Lump-Sum Death Payment
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Social Security Administration. Survivors Benefits
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Social Security Administration. What You Could Get From Survivor Benefits
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 U.S. Code 1163 – Qualifying Event
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U.S. Department of Labor. FAQs on COBRA Continuation Health Coverage for Workers
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HealthCare.gov. Getting Health Coverage Outside Open Enrollment
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Justia. Joint Ownership With Right of Survivorship and Legally Transferring Property
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Federal Trade Commission. Debts and Deceased Relatives
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 12 U.S. Code 1701j-3 – Preemption of Due-on-Sale Prohibitions
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Internal Revenue Service. Filing Status
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 1014 – Basis of Property Acquired From a Decedent
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Internal Revenue Service. What’s New – Estate and Gift Tax
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Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 706
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Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Topics – Beneficiary
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TransUnion. Reporting a Death of a Loved One to TransUnion